Meaningful Atheism

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Meaningful Atheism

22^nd July 2007

I'm 99% sure that there is no god. I'm 100% sure that he/she/it is not worth worshiping. I'm also 100% sure that I will die. I'm not overly thrilled about this eventuality, but it will happen nevertheless. The thing that is "Malcolm" will cease to be. There is no afterlife. There is no heaven. There is no hell. There is no reincarnation. There is no Flying Spaghetti Monster (alas!).

Well, that's what I believe anyway.

Where does this leave me?

Hopeless Nihilism it seems. The world is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth or essential value. Friedrich Nietzsche is right.

All my actions are pointless, they wont matter one iota in the end. The universe will suffer a heat-death in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics and all life will cease to be. If I help an old lady across the street, it won't really matter. She and I both will die. Even the memory of us will vanish.

It also won't matter if a bunch Hutus decide that the world will be a better place without the Tutsi tribe and set about to systematically exterminate them like cockroaches. Hutu and Tutsi alike will soon vanish into a puff of nothingness as the universe expires. All the misery will vanish.

Ditto for helping the poor. All is meaningless.

It seems as if Rick Warren - head pastor of the Saddlebank Church and author of the mega-selling Purpose Driven Life - is right. Pastor Warren puts it this way:

If there is no God, if I am simply complicated ooze, then the truth is, your life doesn't matter, my life doesn't matter. [...] Without meaning, there is no significance or hope. If life is just random chance, then nothing really does matter and there is no morality - it's survival of the fittest. If survival of the fittest means me killing you to survive, so be it¹.

Pastor Rick Warren

It seems that life only makes sense if there is an all powerful, all loving God watching our every move.

Poppycock.

Friedrich Nietzsche - that most arrogant of Germans - is wrong. And so is Pastor Warren. I am complicated ooze. Glorious, free-thinking, loving and caring ooze in fact. How dare he claim that my life is without meaning, morality, significance or hope.

Yes, we're all here for a short time. Yes, the universe will suffer a heat death.

But that does not subtract from life, it adds to life! It's life affirming.

I think it is more life affirming to focus on this life that it is to focus on the life we don't have - i.e. the "afterlife". Almost by definition in fact.

Happiness
How does knowing that we're all here for a short time add to life? It's means that every moment is precious. I dunno about you, but I'd prefer to be happy with my remaining moments on earth. Life is too short to be miserable.

Does this mean a life of debauchery? Perhaps we could live a purely selfish life and to (a metaphorical!) Hell with everyone else? We could make as much money as we could - legally or illegally, it doesn't really matter - and live the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

I think selfish behavior is a sure fire method for unhappiness. The selfish people that I know tend to be miserable wrecks.

The least happiest I've been in my time were the times where I was most selfish. Focusing purely on my own needs - both financially and emotionally - saw me become a miserable wreck, suffer the heart break of a broken marriage and spend five months in the nuthouse.

There are many ways to find happiness: You can find it in raising a loving family, or by painting a beautiful picture that captures the beauty of nature, or by listening to a Beethoven symphony or by reading the mind-expanding work of Daniel Dennett. Heck, you might even find happiness in the success of your favorite sports team or leveling your character in the World of Warcraft. As long as you don't find your happiness by increasing the misery of people (including yourself), then I don't have a problem with what you do.

I love this Einstein quote:

[...] there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men - above all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends.

Albert Einstein

That is where I think I have found my happiness: Working with poor in the dirt of Africa and the Philippines. I want other people to tap into the passion, zeal and a sense of purpose that I have discovered. I want people to feel the deep satisfaction you get when a dirty Filipino kid give you a watermelon just to say "thanks". Or the connectedness you feel when an African woman - in her humbling, traditional way - drops to her knees and mumbles words of thanks in her broken English at the work you've done. It makes me want to head to a street corner, grab a megaphone and belt out: "There is happiness to be found here people! Follow the Nike philosophy and Just Do It!".

This Steve Vai quote sums up the passion I feel nicely:

I am the Passion; I am the Warfare. I will never stop...always constant, accurate, and intense.

Steve Vai

A Call for Action
I think the call for action in places like Uganda and the Philippines becomes even more urgent when one adopts a finite view of existence, while things get fuzzy with a next-world focus.

Heck, if you're overly concerned with getting souls to the next world, why would even bother to go to the Philippines or Uganda anyway? They're practically all in the kingdom of God anyway. 90% of Filipinos and 85% of Ugandans claim to be a Christian. You'd be much better off going to mainland Asia or the Middle East and get stuck into those Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and other evil doers.

This is Margaret. She lives in the war torn area of Kitgum in Northern Uganda. She has survived numerous brutal attacks by the LRA - the rebel group in Northern Uganda. She is a widow and HIV positive. Margaret - like myself - will die. She will not ascend into Heaven or descend in Hell. Heaven knows (as it were...) that Margaret deserves an eternity in heaven where she could eat 'til her hearts content; not have to walk for miles and miles for firewood and water; be free of HIV and be reunited with loved ones with whom she could laugh and laugh and laugh until her full belly aches.

But this won't happen for Margaret. I wish it would, but it won't. The finiteness of her existence and the disproportionate amount of misery that she has suffered should spur us all into action. When Margaret passes away in the not-too-distant future - as she most assuredly will - it will be a tragedy.

Bringing this life into focus

Realizing your life on earth is just a temporary assignment should radically alter your values. Eternal values, not temporal ones, should be the deciding factors for your decisions.

Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life - Page 50

In this case, I agree with Rick Warren. Focusing on the next life will radically alter your values, but maybe not in the good way he implies. For example, take a look at what a next-world focus did for this Spaniards:

The Spaniards in Mexico and Peru used the baptize Indian infants and then immediately dash their brains out: by this means hey secured these infants went to Heaven. No orthodox Christian can find any logical reason for condemning their action, although all do nowadays. In countless ways the doctrine of personal immortality in its Christian form has had disastrous effects upon morals...

Bertrand Russell - Why I Am Not a Christian - Page 35

Good stuff. The cute little mites get to go to heaven and not have to live in this fallen world. Heck, even the grief of the parents doesn't really matter. The babies get an eternity of happiness and the parents get merely a lifetime of sadness. The net happiness of the universe has increased. Hooray! Err... wait...

When we start to focus on this life - and forget about all this afterlife nonsense - issues become a lot less murky. Dashing an infant's brains out is just plan old wrong. Wearing a rubber sheath is no longer a sin and millions of African lives are saved. Homosexuality becomes merely an act between two consenting adults with no victims and no eternal souls are put into jeopardy².

Meaningful Atheism
The sooner we can give up on the afterlife and concentrate on the here and now, the better. The finiteness of our existence should inspire all of us.

Like my article over here, I'm going to leave the last words to Richard Dawkins.

We are so staggeringly lucky to find ourselves in the spotlight. However brief our time in the sun, if we waste a second of it, or complain that it is dull and barren or (like a child) boring, couldn't this be seen as a callous insult to those unborn trillions who will never be offered life in the first place? [...] the knowledge that we have only one life should make it all the more precious.

The atheist view is correspondingly life-affirming and life-enhancing, while at the same time never been tainted with self-delusion, wishful thinking, or whinging self pity of those who feel life owes them something.

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion (2006), page 361.

As always, I welcome feedback on this piece.

¹ http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,825,The-God-Debate,Sam-Harris-Rick-Warren-Newsweek
² For an example of how the churches obsession with the victimless crime of homosexuality, check this site out.

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